Short Notice
by NearInsanity96
Summary: happy surge of creativity fluff ! Mello's in the infirmary, but why is Matt angry?


**Bonjour, my lovelies~! Life, all in all, has kinda trumped my productivity for a while now, and I've given up on my multichapter idea. HOWEVER! I've had a beautifully intoxicating rush of creativity today, so I'll be posting two fics! This is the semi-fluffy one, enjoy!**

"Mello….Mello! Mello wake up you god damn idiot!"

My thoughts were muddled and confused, blending and cohering into one big mess. The first two lucid thoughts I had, however, went like this: One, who in their right mind thinks it's okay to call ME an idiot, and two, why in the name of all things good and great do I have such a bloody awful headache?

Slowly opening my eyes pretty much answered those questions for me. I seemed to be in a hospital – no, scratch that, the Wammy's infirmary, and the bastard who called me an idiot was my dearest friend, Matt.

Groaning, I mumbled the first thing that came to my mind, my voice rasping painfully "Chocolate…."

For that, I earned a light slap on the arm and Matt continuing to berate me for whatever stupid stunt I'd pulled. One part in particular caught my attention.

"….And Roger's prohibiting you from chocolate until you can prove you won't do it again! What kind of stupid git are you, staying awake for four days straight and surviving on only CHOCOLATE!"

I winced, more so unhappy about my ban from the cacao-bean goodness, than the volume competition the jackhammer in my head seemed to be having with Matt. Deciding on the only way to get them to both shut up, I chose to ask a few half-hearted questions and clear a few things up.

"Matt…what exactly happened? How long have I been here?"

He stopped mid-sentence and stared at me, his deep blue eyes red-rimmed. Shit, I made him cry? I never meant to do that…

"Five days. Five fucking _days, _Mello. You…. You really scared me this time. We were all looking for you when we realized that you hadn't shown up for dinner for the past couple days, and I found you in the library, passed out. At first glance, I thought you were dead…but I got Roger and he carried you to the infirmary. The doctor hooked you up to an IV so you'd get food and liquids and stuff but…you stayed sleeping for five days straight. Are you thirsty…? I could get you some water or something…"

I nodded slowly thinking some water might be nice. After drinking about three glasses, I finally felt that my voice could handle talking for a bit.

"What books did I have with me?"

Matt looked incredulous, but I knew he'd remember. He had an almost-scary photographic memory.

"Um… _Les Misérables_ and _A Streetcar Named Desire_. No non-fiction for once…were you on some sort of martyrdom kick?"

Damn…the lack of sleep must've been affecting me by then. I thought that might help me remember my reasoning.

"No… well, I can't really remember but I don't think so. Anything else notable?"

Matt chewed gently on his lip, thinking for a little bit, then burst out with the sudden glee of something that was sure to please me: " Oh yeah! You'd been taking notes! Like, thirty pages…the last few made no sense, but you were beyond delirious by that point so-"

I cut in "I want to see them."

Knowing better than to question me, he nodded in submissively and hopped up to go grab them.

Fifteen minutes and thirty-two and a half pages later, I remembered why, exactly, I did what I did.

"Oh…Matt… I-I'm sorry. I remember now…"

He glared at me silently (who could blame him? Some things written there he should have never seen…), and waited for me to continue.

"I wanted to be like L. I mean, he never sleeps, and he never eats real food…so I thought that if I copied him I could beat-"

Matt, the quiet boy who never got angry, my cheerful best friend, the redhead who took his place as my younger brother cut me off roaring lividly

"THIS IS ABOUT NEAR? ABOUT SOME STUPID COMPETITION? FOR FUCK'S SAKE MELLO, YOU COULD HAVE _DIED!_ I'M BLOODY TIRED OF THIS! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST … JUST ACCEPT THAT YOU'RE NUMBER TWO?"

The stony silence that followed was fractured only by Matt's heavy breathing and the faint beep of my heart monitor. I was furious, of course, never understanding why Matt was just as frustrated. I stared, feeling frigid with my fury as drops of saltwater speckled the cheeks of a boy clad in stripes. I tried my best to focus on other things, so I wouldn't snap; the way the deep blue of his eyes (marred and blurry with tears) were so much kinder than mine, the fact that there were exactly 23 grey-green floor tiles around the perimeter of the small room.

Shakily, Matt spoke, in a voice no louder than a whisper "Mells… I want you to take care of yourself. You put me through hell with all of this a-and…I'm tired of hearing about Near and L and studying. It's all you ever talk about and it's…annoying. I just want to see you – just once – when you're not wound up so tight with stress that you won't even look at me. I look up to you but you don't seem to care. I mean, we're god damned orphans – we don't have anyone! But…I thought I'd at least found a friend in you!"

With that speech over, he ran off. I'm assuming he went to our room, or the common room or something. Maybe he went to class…I didn't know what day it was. He left me with the bitter 'I-told-you-not-to-be-stupid' chant of my conscious, along with a headache that threatened my ability to hold on a little bit longer. I knew I'd be kissing his boots for a while because really, he was right. We didn't have anyone else. I could only hope he'd be merciful enough not to kick me in the face.

A day or so later (one really cannot tell time properly when most of it is spent sleeping), I was confined to my bed and listening to the tinny music emanating from whatever game Matt was playing. Scarily enough, he actually hadn't talked to me since I'd been in the infirmary. He didn't seem to mind being in the same room as me though.

"M…Matt….?"

Silence.

"Matt."

Tinny music getting louder.

"Matt, _please."_

"…..What, Mello?"

Thanking whatever higher power happened to be on my side, I took a deep breath and subsequently jumped off the deep end.

"I'm so sorry, Matt. I mean, I guess I knew you felt that way but I didn't really care. You won't ever hear me say this again but…you're right. I was being stupid and I knew it too…I should've considered your feelings or something sappy like that… Um, you probably won't stop me from trying to beat Near or become L, or study until I can't hold my eyes open any longer but…I at least won't endanger myself like that again. Sorry."

Tossing his game aside and trapping me in a rib-crushing bear hug, Matt cooed (literally _cooed_) "Oh Mello! I knew you'd come to your senses! Thank you for finally coming back to me!" Then, snaking a hand into his pocket and retrieving a dark chocolate bar he smirked and asked "Guess what I snagged for ya? I know you like milk chocolate better but this was all I could get on short notice…"

So maybe shit was gonna happen. Perhaps I'd drive myself crazy trying to best Near…but at least I knew my best friend and pseudo-brother would always have my back, even if he wasn't sneaky enough to get me milk chocolate on short notice...

**Fun fact: This was supposed to be fluff of the Mello-L variety but it turned out like…this. Lol.**


End file.
